Ex-Wales hooker Rhys Thomas captains the visitors while Wales centre Tyler Morgan is on the bench.

England Under-18 international Herron will partner Pienaar at half-back with All Blacks star Piutau at full-back.

Prop Ross Kane will join Herron and Piutau in making his competitive debut after also playing in pre-season games.

With summer signing Rodney Ah You joining injured props Wiehahn Herbst, Ricky Lutton and Jonny Simpson as an absentee after being concussed in last weekend's warm-up win over Northampton, academy player Kane is handed his opportunity.

Andrew Trimble, along with other Ireland players Rory Best and Iain Henderson, is unavailable following his summer tour exertions with the national squad so hooker Rob Herring will captain the side.

Trimble and Herring are sharing the Ulster captaincy this season after national skipper Best stepped down from the role.

With Chris Henry also not available because of injury, Sean Reidy, Clive Ross and Roger Wilson are named in the back row.

Ulster's backline includes Ireland internationals Stuart McCloskey, Stuart Olding and Craig Gilroy with Louis Ludik not being risked because of a thumb injury and Darren Cave missing for personal reasons.

Piutau and Gilroy are joined in the back three by Ireland Under-20 player Jacob Stockdale.

We have lost only one opening weekend since 2009, and that was away to the Dragons in 2013. Dragons should really have beaten us at Ravers last season, but for Jackson converting a penalty in the dying minutes. We also struggled against the Dragons when we visited them last season.

We are without Williams now, and consequently have no ball carrying threat in the backrow. In fact, we have no ball carrying threat in the pack. We have a starting 10 making his first league appearance and a starting 5th choice TH also making his first league appearance.

We do have a great backline, and I expect Pienaar will take the pressure of Herron. We do have Piutau, also making his PRO12 debut. This could be a much tighter game than some expect though, although I do think we should win at home.

It seems an age since we last played in the league. Really looking forward to this game.

To be fair Munchkin Reidy stepped up at the end of last season and really provided us with a decent ball carrier in the backrow and while we don't have Williams bulldozing through players theres enough there to do the job tonight

marty2086 wrote:To be fair Munchkin Reidy stepped up at the end of last season and really provided us with a decent ball carrier in the backrow and while we don't have Williams bulldozing through players theres enough there to do the job tonight

I don't think Dragons have the strongest pack, so we should get the job done.

Just to be clear even though I have said on another page that I think Dragons may end up bottom and Ulster should be aiming for a BP win, I am not a Dragon hater, before anyone thinks I am.

I actually really like them, and respect them they are a tough team esp at home.I think their fans are great, very few teams would struggle around the bottom for a few years, and still bring in an average of 6000 fans.

Thats shows the team has solid support, and the reason I think they are somewhat of a sleeping giant. What other team can get this support in the bad times, and imagine what it would be like in the good times.

Just to be clear even though I have said on another page that I think Dragons may end up bottom and Ulster should be aiming for a BP win, I am not a Dragon hater, before anyone thinks I am.

I actually really like them, and respect them they are a tough team esp at home.I think their fans are great, very few teams would struggle around the bottom for a few years, and still bring in an average of 6000 fans.

Thats shows the team has solid support, and the reason I think they are somewhat of a sleeping giant. What other team can get this support in the bad times, and imagine what it would be like in the good times.

GavinDragon wrote:As an aside, are Ulster fans not embarassed by your commentators on BBC NI? Awfully biased, make Jonathan Davies look like the picture of fairness.

On the contrary, I've been enjoying the Ulster commentary. Makes a nice change from The BBC2 Wales lot who I'm completely bored with. I'm not seeing Bias here. They're championing Ulster, which you'd expect as a BBC NI team, just as Jiffy et al. get all excited when the Welsh team scores. But I like these commentators and don't feel they're being biased.

On the game: Dragons started well but Ulster class now starting to show through. We'll do well to get a bonus point now but more than likely it will be no points

Ulster are good, and better than dragons in every department. As for dregs, well it doesn't seem much/anything has changed since last season and I'm going to guess Kingsley is part of the reason. There's also certain players (like the one at hooker) who should have their pro contract ripped up. Shocking.

Congrats Ulster bare the first 20 you really controlled the speed at which the game was played at although the first few tries were mostly off Dragons mistakes I.e over throw or lineout steal. I was expecting a BP victory for you guys given the difference in quality of players (Piatau is on the same wage as our whole match day 23

Last edited by dragon4life on Fri Sep 02, 2016 9:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

New props weren't very promising and replacements improved slightly. Backs were good for first 20 stretching Ulster it's a shame we couldn't play like that for full 80. Also bbc ni were very bias even when Ulster weren't playing well